Doug Stanhope�s gruff, kamikaze style of standup is unique enough, but Oslo: Burning the Bridge to Nowhere is just shy of bizarre. Here, the comedian baits a Norwegian audience with politically incorrect comments on race, along with some threats, like that he might enjoy tomorrow�s gig in Finland even better. The rowdy crowd cheers the former and boos the latter, both of which reverberate through the Fabrikkhallen, which Stanhope describes as �a venue I think we broke into�, painting his arrival as a scene from Hostel with �I was afraid to have the cab leave me off here.� Later it�s berating the Norwegians for tolerating the very idea of a royal family, and accusing them of being beautiful, but sexless and uninteresting. Tense laughs, for sure, and plenty of them, too, as the comedian shifts the target to groupies he�s disappointed while on tour, and then to himself, going on a long, uncomfortable riff about how much the quality of his work has deteriorated. Then there are the moments of brilliance that make him Bill Hicks� heir apparent (�Tradition and heritage are all dead people�s baggage; stop carrying it�) and the very un-Hicks moments of Stanhope going gross (�Stomping Kittens�). He�s not for everyone, and this certainly isn�t the one to start with, but Stanhope taunting an audience in their second language is as fascinating in execution as it is in idea. ~ David Jeffries